(NWGCA Board Member and Coalition Co-President David Berg prepared this statement to share at the NAGC conference later this month on behalf of WA state. We thought it was such a nice summary that we'd share it with you in our newsletter, too. Thanks David!)

Washington's highly capable students benefit from the actions of three statewide organizations. The Northwest Gifted Child Association (NWGCA) provides support to families of gifted students. The Washington Association of Educators of the Talented and Gifted (WAETAG) provides professional development opportunities to educators and administrators. The Washington Coalition for Gifted Education (WCGE) acts as the political arm of the gifted community, working with legislators and other educational organizations to shape policy and obtain funding that supports highly capable services.

WCGE continues to work with the NEWS Coalition, a collection of school districts, education associations, community groups, and civic organizations, that won a lawsuit against the state for failing to amply fund basic education. Highly capable services have been part of our state's definition of basic education since 2009, and the state legislature's failure to amply fund a basic education for all of our state's students has resulted in the legislature being held in contempt of court, currently incurring a fine of $100,000 a day for its inaction. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit have repeatedly cited the lack of progress by the legislature in funding highly capable services in its ongoing dealings with the State Supreme Court. WCGE has also worked with the Washington State PTA and the Washington State School Director's Association to make sure that the needs of highly capable learners are reflected in each organization's legislative priorities.

WAETAG held its annual conference on October 16th and 17th, drawing a record number of registrants. Approximately 450 educators, administrators, and parents attended keynotes by Lori Comallie-Caplan, former President of SENG, and Ian Byrd of www.byrdseed.com, and breakout sessions that were designed to give educators materials that they could take back to their classrooms and put into use immediately. Speakers in breakout sessions encouraged participants to consider the needs of students in small, medium, and large school districts and to share how the lessons learned in the conference could be put to practice. WAETAG has also worked with the Robinson Center at the University of Washington to compile an Online Highly Capable Program Document Handbook, a collection of documents from exemplary school districts across the state that can be used to help districts as they change their highly capable programs to comply with the most recent changes in state law.

NWGCA has focused recent efforts on holding more, smaller programs in more locations across the state, rather than holding one large event each year. NWGCA Board Members have partnered with districts across the state to hold half-day and evening events for parents who frequently have never attended an event designed for families of gifted children. NWGCA President Austina De Bonte also presented an abbreviated version of a "Gifted 101" presentation at the October WAETAG conference, demonstrating a sample of the services that NWGCA can work with districts to provide. NWGCA has been working to recruit more board members to help increase the visibility of the organization across the state and allow it to better serve families, wherever they live.

Many parents are surprised to learn that their child's unique "quirks" are actually well-studied social & emotional behavior patterns that appear across large populations of highly intelligent children. Whether it's refusing to wear shirts with buttons or tags, overreacting to the slightest criticism, gravitating towards adults and older children, forgetting to turn in their homework, trouble with handwriting, anxiety about trying something new, or preferring a book to a party, these and many other perplexing behaviors are common in this population. Learn what's normal, what to expect as they grow, and why genuine challenge is vitally important for kids' social and emotional development, as well as developing their academic talents, from the preschool and elementary years all the way to high school and beyond. Presented by Austina De Bonte, President NWGCA.org

Invite us to speak to your parent group

The mission of NWGCA is to reach out to parents of gifted children across the state and provide resources, information, and coaching about raising gifted children. NWGCA Board Members love to speak to parent groups. Our talks are FREE, and are available on a variety of topics that can be customized to the needs of your community. Please email us if you would like to schedule a speaker.SCHOLARSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

Jack Kent Cooke Foundation The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation offers the largest scholarships available to exceptionally high achieving, low-income students. Scholars receive up to $40,000 a year to cover tuition, living expenses, books and other fees. Cooke Scholars come from every state with no restriction on background, race, ethnicity, religion, gender, political affiliation or citizenship status.The Cooke College Scholarship is an undergraduate scholarship for high-achieving high school seniors with financial need that can be used at any accredited state or private four-year college and university. This scholarship is available to 12th graders who have earned a cumulative unweighted GPA of at least 3.5 and minimum SAT combined critical reading and math scores of at least 1200 or minimum ACT composite score of 26. Applications are due by November 3, 2015.The Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship makes it possible for the nation's top community college students to complete their bachelor's degrees by transferring to a four-year college or university. The scholarship is available to community college students who have earned a GPA of 3.5 or above on a 4.0 scale. Applications are due by December 15, 2015. CogitoCogito.org is an award-winning free online community and website for exceptional students from around the world who love science, technology, engineering and math. Students can participate in online interviews with scientists and mathematicians of all ages; view news articles, essays, book reviews, videos and blogs pertaining to myriad science and math topics; and access a searchable database of academic programs and math and science competitions. Cogito also features secure, member-only discussion forums where members can discuss science and math-related issues as well as career and educational topics. Members of Cogito also have the opportunity to apply for a CTY Cogito Research Award, an annual competition that enables winning students to conduct research in science, technology, engineering, or math by awarding them small grants and pairing them with a mentor.

Have you considered Davidson?

Young Scholars ProgramThe Davidson Institute for Talent Development in Reno, Nevada offers many free services for Young Scholars who have qualifying IQ or achievement scores, generally a score above 145. Note that they have recently simplified their entrance criteria. Have you considered applying? More information

Davidson Academy The Davidson Academy is now accepting applications for the 2016-2017 school year. Unlike many traditional school settings, the Academy's classes are not grouped by age-based grades, but by ability level, providing profoundly gifted young people an educational opportunity matched to their abilities, strengths and interests. The Davidson Academy is a free, public day school for Nevada residents. (Yes, some people move to go there).To be eligible to attend the Davidson Academy, students must be at the middle or high school level across all subject areas and score in the 99.9th percentile on IQ or college entrance tests, such as the SAT or ACT. For admission details, please visit ADMISSIONS.

Applications are reviewed on a monthly basis with a final application deadline of April 1, 2016. More information

Donate to NWGCA!Looking for a great place to make a tax-deductible donation that really counts? We appreciate all donations, large and small, to help us reach out to parent groups across the state, provide resources and workshops. Donate to NWGCA

We love to hear your feedback and ideas... Please don't be shy, we are here to serve you. Email us

NaNoWriMoNovember is national novel writing month. Kids and adults - you've got one month to crank out a novel, with support and community of other writers.More information

Totem Head's Story ContestSubmit a story of up to 1500 words starting with "So there I was," with age groups from under 8s all the way to age 18. Entries due December 31, 2016More information

Highly Capable Programs Handbook The UW Robinson Center for Young Scholars has published an online handbook for school districts that are developing and/or reworking their hicap programs to be in compliance with the new laws. Please feel free to use this in your advocacy, or share with your district administrators as a valuable resource.Download the Handbook

WOWsAs a special NWGCA benefit, we are happy to provide you with a discount code NW-15PM6W to register at no cost for Webinars on Wednesdays (WOWs) offered by the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) - both future sessions and past recordings are eligible. Please note that this discount code is not published on our website, so please don't lose it.

You can find full information on the dates, times, and sessions at the NAGC website

SENGinarsSENGifted.org also hosts regular webinars. Here is the upcoming calendar. Sorry, we don't have discount codes for these, but they do offer member discounts. SENG is a great organization, highly recommended you join and become a member.November 10, 2015Gifted Elders: A Call To Advocacy (2015 Adult Gifted Series)Presenter: Joy Navan

Calling all Parent Groups!We are slowly collecting contact information for more parent groups across the state, but we know there are still way more out there. If you belong to a group, whether it's associated with a school district or not, would you please drop us a line about where you are located and how best to reach your group? Or, are you hoping to found a group but not sure how to do it? We can help you get started.Email us